


To See That Smile Once More

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Memories, Gen, because everyone was innocent once upon a time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13039359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Nothing will ever be as important to Madara as seeing his baby brother smile.





	To See That Smile Once More

Madara had barely more than a second’s notice to move the important scroll out of the way before Izuna came crashing down across his lap, melting over his right leg like spilled liquid and propping a sharp chin up on his left with a barely visible pout.

“Nii-san, I’m so bored,” the younger lad whined. Madara huffed.

“So am I but this is important stuff. Can’t you go spar with Hikaku or something?”

“Uh-uh. He left on a mission yesterday.” Izuna heaved a dramatic sigh. “There’s nothing to do!”

“There’s plenty to do. I happen to know you didn’t properly clean your blade after that run-in with the Senju two days ago so you’ll need to sharpen and polish it now. You could help me with these correspondences. Or you could do the dishes from breakfast as you promised you would and then didn’t.”

Instead of looking at all guilty for the things he had neglected to do, his nine-year old sibling only grumbled and melted further down across his legs.

“But Nii-san!” he whined. “I want you to come play with me. Stop being boring and come help me catch frogs in the pond.” Tilting his face at just the right angle, Izuna paired his supplication with a wibbling lip and a pleading look which had, in the past, gotten him both in to and back out of quite a bit of trouble. Madara harrumphed like he had seen their father do countless times.

“I’m not being boring, I’m being responsible.  These will be my own duties someday and I have to learn them so that I can lead the clan.”

“Boooooooriiiiiiiing!” Izuna rolled over and settled again so he was looking directly up at his brother. “Come on, Nii-san! I saw this one _really_ big frog and I wanna catch it so I can leave it in Hikaku’s bed when he gets home!”

Madara twitched. That did sound like fun. Playing pranks on Hikaku was something they used to do together all the time, much to the younger lad’s chagrin. Most of the pranks had stopped due to Madara’s increasing duties and the fact that they were all busy with missions nowadays. Looking at the scroll he still held in one hand, he wavered.

“I really shouldn’t,” he murmured.

“Please?” Izuna clasped both hands together and pushed his lower lip out. Who was Madara to resist such an adorable face as that one?

“Well, I suppose I have gotten a lot done this morning.”

“Woohoo!”

Before he even felt the movement Izuna was up out of his lap, performing a small victory jig. Amusement warred with the ball of fuzzy warmth that settled in his chest while Madara carefully set the scroll aside with the others he had been working on and stood, demurely wiping the dust from his knees. No matter how mature he tried to act as he got older, there would never be anything more important to him than making his precious baby brother smile like he was right now. Nothing on this earth could ever be half as important to him as Izuna was.

Sandals were thrown on and nets were grabbed before Madara found a smaller hand slipping in to his own and tugging him away in to the trees which surrounded the ancient Uchiha compound. A small part of him took a single moment to spare a thought for his father, hoping that Tajima would stay busy at his meeting with the elders for several more hours as he was expected to, but it was merely a fleeting moment. He was much more inclined to focus on the way his brother’s hair swayed in the breeze, lifting and falling with every hurried step, leading the two of them onward towards the one big pond they used to swim in every summer.

It hadn’t changed much since the last time they had come here together, even if Madara struggled to remember when that was. The cat tails seemed smaller now that he had grown taller and that one tree branch that had always been out of reach looked so much closer now. But the pond itself was the same clear blue and the three small rocks in the center were still the perfect place to curl up on and fall asleep after a long afternoon of splashing and swimming.

Not that swimming was what they had come here to do. Madara let Izuna lead him by the hand over to the really marshy bits by the west corner. He made no complaints about the mud that immediately soaked through his clothing as they knelt down side by side, searching through the reeds until something small and green rustled close to their fingers.

Wild shrieks filled the air as the two of them ran after every frog that caught their eye, Izuna constantly getting distracted from one to go chase another. Madara brought each of his catches back to his brother to ask if they were the one he was looking for and he never minded when they weren’t. The longer it took them to find the right frog the longer he got to spend pretending that time had gone backwards and their days would forever be filled with nothing but ponds and endless afternoons, coming home covered in mud and smiles with pond flowers in their hair.

Eventually he did catch the right frog. When he brought it to Izuna his brother had clapped his hands with the pure joy of someone whose age still hadn’t even reached the double digits yet. He let Izuna carry to net proudly as they tramped their way back towards the compound and even though it meant their adventure had come to its inevitable end Madara thought the happiness on his baby brother’s face was more than worth it.

The scream which was sure to rattle the walls of every house in the compound that night would certainly to be worth it as well.

As the two of them rigged up a bucket to keep the frog in until it was time to hide it in Hikaku’s bed later, Izuna had never shone so brightly. He shook long tresses dark hair out of his face, spluttering a few strands that had been caught in his mouth, then turned to his sibling with a brilliant smile.

“This is gonna be so great!” Dropping a cover over the bucket so their amphibious captive wouldn’t hop away, he hopped forward himself and tackled Madara to the floor in a tight hug. “Thank you for helping! You’re the best Nii-san in the whole world!”

“Next time you can catch frogs by yourself,” Madara grumbled back. His words had little sting when he said them with such a wide grin on his own face. Izuna wasn’t fooled in the least and his only response was to hug him even tighter.

Madara didn’t truly mind, just as he didn’t truly mean it. He was happy to follow wherever his brother wanted to lead him just to see that smile once more.


End file.
